An Off The Grid Plan And How It Came To This

Netflix ruined our lives. We were perfectly content eating GMOs, drinking from PET bottles, washing clothes in formaldehyde, and living in a world of waste. Then Netflix came along and we watched documentaries that shed a little light on our shameful wasteful lifestyles. Then we watched Food, Inc. We were screwed. After streaming countless documentaries on how we can live greener lives, eliminate waste and how we should avoid ANYTHING processed, we did a semi-cleanse. We juiced (watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead), we ate organic, avoided anything from a company that rhymes with Sonsanto, eliminated harmful chemicals (buy vinegar… it’s the best thing to clean with), we thought we were doing great. Well, then we had the radical idea to quit our corporate jobs, start our own business and move to Tennessee from Florida and raise our son (now 14 months old) in a wholesome environment.

We quickly realized how expensive it is to buy GMO free, organic, and non-processed foods. It disappointed us that we could spend $5 on a pizza that would feed all of us instead of paying that much for a very small organic chicken breast. For us, it truly came down to cost. We were on a tighter than tight budget and unfortunately, you can make crappy food cheaper than you can make healthy food. I’ll be the first to tell you, that eating pure, whole foods is healthier and more affordable in the long run. The money we spend on medical bills (later in life) due to not taking care of ourselves NOW, is astronomical. I get that, and I wish it was more affordable to go out and buy healthier foods, but the truth is, for the most part it is more affordable to eat crappy processed foods or from a $1 menu.

We started thinking about how we could change that. We quickly realized that by doing things yourself, you can afford to follow this lifestyle for not much more than your time. By living a self-sufficient lifthestyle, you can not only afford food, you can change your attitude toward waste. THAT is the key part of this lifestyle change: It is difficult to be comfortable wasting things that required your time, sweat and effort. Think about it, if you had to wash your clothes by hand, would you throw your jeans into a dirty clothes pile after one wear? If you had to slaughter a chicken that you fed and nurtured, would you scrape off those last few bites into the trash? If you had to grow your own fruit and vegetables, would you let them mold in the bottom of the fridge? This is what our journey is about. We are changing our thoughts about waste one step at a time.

Our goal is to build a home on my husband’s family farm made of earth, reclaimed wood, plastic, glass, pallets and anything else we find useful. We would like to be completely off the grid by utilizing solar and wind energy. We will also use rainwater for things like flushing our toilets and watering plants. We are looking at plans for Earthships, cob homes, pallet homes and other alternative buildings and trying to determine which will best suite our abilities and building codes. We have started a GoFundMe account to raise money for solar panels, permitting, excavation, plumbing and electric and whatever unexpected expenses we come across. We will be updating this blog as things progress and detail EVERY SINGLE PENNY that goes into building this home.

Once we are on site and our home is built, we will be building a coop for chickens and perhaps rabbits as well. We’d also like to have our own bees for honey and wax. Plans that we’ve seen for our dream home include an attached green house so we’d be growing fruits, vegetables and herbs. We are going to continue to document how we do everyday tasks like laundry, cooking, and slaughtering. We are hoping to be able to grow and raise enough that we can feed hungry families in our community.